What Is the Place of Grammar in Language Teaching?

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Language is very essential in one’s life. It is not something that should be taken for granted. Ignoring the importance of language could hinder governments from operating, business would close, trade could not be carried on, and science and industry would be a hopeless tangle. In fact, without language most human activity would cease. The word ‘’language’’ comes from the Latin Word lingua, which means ‘’tongue’’. The tongue is used in more sound combination than any other organ of speech. Speech makes human being different from animals. Furthermore, there are countless languages around the world. All languages have certain thing in common, though their differences are enormous. They have three things in common. Firstly, they all consist of sounds produced by the vocal organs (the throat, nose, tongue, palate, teeth, and lips) and received by the ear. Secondly, a particular way of ordering sounds into words or word units. Thirdly, rules for such things as word endings and the arrangement of words in a certain order. Different languages use different sets of sounds. People grow accustomed to the sound of their own language. Therefore, when they need to learn a new set of sounds, they find that their old language habits gets in their way. In order to overcome these obstacles, language specialists have introduced International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), in which each symbol stands for just one speech sound2. The language arts consist of all forms of communication in which words are used. There are four language arts: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Those are interwoven. For example, a good understanding of listening and speaking skills and being able to use them effectively improves one’s ability to read. On the other hand, good listening, speaking, and reading skills are reflected in one’s writing3. To be good in the language arts, grammar plays a vital role.
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